NEW WAVE OF ABDUCTION AND TERROR IN IRAN
TEHRAN 26 Jan. (IPS) In less than two weeks, another Iranian intellectual was reported "disappeared", after being abducted by unidentified people, in a move that observers say is a "new wave of fear and terror" launched by the hard liners against dissidents.
In a letter to Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Khatami, the beleaguered Iranian President, -- who is on an official visit in India --Mrs Mahshid Hamzehpoor, the wife of Mr. Siamak Taheri informs him of the "disappearance" of her husband since almost two weeks ago and urges him to help her finding the whereabouts of Mr. Taheri.
According to Mrs. Hamzehpoor, her husband had been taken away from home on 13 January by three uniformed men who said they belonged to the Law Enforcement Forces, bringing a parcel from Germany, but expressed "fear" that the men might be "rogue elements" acting independently or on order of shadowy organisations against intellectuals.
Mr. Taheri, a translator and freelance journalist, is the second intellectual who "disappears" in the last month. Mr. Alireza Jabbarzadeh, also a translator, was abducted and disappeared in similar conditions a month ago and his family has no clue of his conditions or whereabouts.
Observers and analysts say the new wave of abduction and disappearances, a reminder of the murder of other dissidents years ago, like Mohammad Ja’far Pooyandeh and Mohammad Mokhtari by high-ranking members of the Intelligence Ministry, is part of the struggle against the reformers, with the Nationalist-religious and the Iran Freedom Movement as the prime targets, by the ruling hard liners.
"To send the maximum current of fear and terror to the people, the perpetrators do not identify, deliberately leave the families of the abducted people in the dark, without giving them any information", one Iranian analyst told Iran Press Service. ENDS ABDUCTIONS CONTINUE 26103